


Heart and Feather

by Emby



Series: Empty Nest [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Female Lance, Fluff and Angst, Genderswap, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Langst, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 20:07:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15781188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emby/pseuds/Emby
Summary: Lance and Keith are ok. They're the best until someone goes a bit too far. Then they're not ok.





	Heart and Feather

“Don’t stop, don’t you dare fucking stop.” His only response is to smirk up at her and continue pulling her through fields of ecstasy. When they lie next to each other sated Keith lies on his back with Lance on his chest looking up at him. The air is filled with their heavy pants. They're both nearly about to drift off till Keith startles at a sharp gasp from Lance. “Oh shit, I love you.” 

Keith stops breathing for a moment and a smile breaks out on his face. “Oh Shit, me too.” he's mocking her a little bit and she can tell. She just laughs and surges up to kiss him again. And this kiss is different when they break apart it feels like they've both been stripped bare every single feeling they've felt for each other now out in the open. And they can both sense it. 

Life on the ship is different after those words. They secret away to different corners of the ship doing God knows what exploring, talking, more woohoo? Who knows neither of them have told anyone that they’re together and they like it that way. They're in no rush.

When the rest of the team are surprised by the turn of events. Hunk would call it a strange phenomenon that needed further study. Lance and Keith were actually getting along. Rather than mocking each other for a mistake in the training room they joke light heartedly and Lance says something and Keith is on the floor laughing. 

Pidge says its because the of the bonding moment that they shared and she isn’t one hundred percent wrong. The other Paladins only figure it out when Pidge walks in on Keith preening Lance’s feathers. She’s not wearing a shirt as he picks through her wings gently pulling out the loose feathers and fixing those that are out of place. She gives a full body shudder when Keith strokes a very sensitive portion beneath her wings. She whips around to look at him. “You did that on purpose.” He kisses her “So what if I did?” 

“What the fuck is this?” they jump and look towards the door. “Pidge, hey!” Lance doesn’t even try to look sheepish or even cover herself up. “What. is. Up?” 

“That’s it? You’re sitting here bare tiddy with your ‘rival’ and you think I’m not gonna be phased?” Lance busts out laughing much to the surprise of both Keith and Pidge. 

“I’m sorry, I know this is a big revealtation but ‘bare tiddy’ is hilarious.” Pidge doesn’t budge still expecting an answer. “We have been together for six months?” she looks back to Keith for confirmation and he nods. “Yeah six months.” Pidge can’t deal with this and she turns on her heel and leaves the room. “You think she’s gonna tell everyone?” Keith shrugs. 

Keith walks into breakfast the next morning carrying a sleepy Lance on his back. “No fucking way?” Hunk’s voice is incredulous and Pidge pipes up “See I wasn’t lying.” Hunk switches to Avian and a mix of sharp trills and whistles, a sort of tense anger on his very expressive face. Lance answers back her noises a bit more calm and less sharp with Pidge interjecting with her own questions. 

Keith feels out of place. It's not often that they leave him out of conversations, his lack of wings is already makes him feel like an outsider, a tense topic, enough of a painful outcast thing. It’s upsetting but he pretends to not be bothered by it as he continues eating his food. He doesn't let go of her hand though as she rubs circles into the back of his hand. Lance’s voice makes him look up from his food. “Yeah, I love him. He makes me happy.” She’s looking at him so fondly it makes his heart hurt. Without missing a beat he pulls her hand to his mouth and kisses it. 

“What the fuck?” Shiro’s voice from the door.

Not much changes except for both of them being more public with their displays of affection. As in all relationships there are struggles arguments and other negative parts of relationships But that comes with the territory. The main points of conflict tend to center around Keith's very obvious non avian features. He has no wings, can’t speak or understand a word of Avian, and so many instinctual things are lost on him. 

As much as she tries not to, Lance tends to bring up that particular sensitive area often. It could be a playful moment when Lance dances out of reach as he's chasing her but if she takes to the air it's just not fair to Keith. Or when she's in a mood and just manhandles him with her wings. 

It hurts him so much. This is something he can't change about himself and it makes him feel so small. Like he’ll never fit in or understand the woman that he loves. He’s an outsider in their little family and 

They’ve stopped on a grassy planet with so much airspace that they can’t leave without stretching out their wings. They’re gone for hours leaving Allura, Coran, and Keith on the ship. They watch through the class the Alteans ‘oohing and ahhing’ at their aerial tricks. Keith only has eyes for his Lance and occasionally Shiro. It's nice to see his brother looking healthy and happy again. He can’t help the twinge of jealousy he feels as he sees them soaring through the air. Knowing that that’ll never be him without mechanical assistance. He leaves without a goodbye. Not that it would have mattered, the Altean’s eyes glued to the Avians soaring through the sky.

 

When they finally tire, Lance heads back to their room after a long shower. She flops on the bed exhausted. “Don't you just hate having to be grounded all the time, its it's the absolute worst. At least today we got to finally fly you know?” Keith doesn’t answer and Lance asks again only to be met with his tense reply “I wouldn’t know Lance I don’t have wings.” Her mouth snaps shut and she comes off the bed to wrap her arms around his neck. “I’m sorry Yo-yo.” he snorts at the nickname. 

“I tell you about Yorak one time and that’s your take away?” Lance snickers and kisses his cheek. “I think it’s cute. But seriously, I realize that some of the things I say can be insensitive so please let me know when I’m being an asshole.” 

They celebrate another relationship milestone on a day they don't have to be actively saving the universe. Keith had mentioned he wanted to visit the Blades so she plans their day around it. Its a pleasant surprise to see all the old faces again. He doesn’t expect for them to pull out cake and presents screaming “Happy Birthday Keith!” 

His head whips over to Lance who’s laughing at the look of surprise on his face. “Happy birthday babe, looks like you forgot.” He doesn’t get to thank her in that moment, he gets swept away in all the cheer. Later when they’ve returned to the castle Lance gives him her own gift if you know what I mean. 

You would think their relationship would be fine for how much they love and support each other, but it isn’t. 

~

“Just hang on to me!” “Are you sure you can hold me up Lance!?” she's flying with him holding him up in the air. He's terrified of heights and she knows that. “I've got you I promise.” she barely has him and its it's not that much of a surprise when they come crashing down.

Keith had to take a moment to stave off the impending panic. For all the crazy tricks Shiro taught him in the desert, he had never gotten over his fear of heights. But Lance only laughs. “I still can't believe you're afraid of heights.” Keith only walks away, not stopping at her tentative calls. 

Lance finds him in their room sharpening his knife. “Hey, you ok?” “I'm fine.” “Keith-" 

“I told you I didn't want to fly Lance was that so hard for you to accept?” 

She throws her hands up exasperated, “It's literally in your blood Keith! Unless you're not Avian enough.” 

His body ignites in fiery anger before he immediately cools its it's not worth it to get this angry.“Yeah, I guess I'm not.” he brushes past her “Keith, talk to me please!” 

This has been the biggest hiccup nay, roadblock nay, gargantuan upset in their relationship. Lance is beside herself, worried that she fucked everything up between them. 

Keith doesn't sleep in their room anymore and she doesn't really even know where he goes at night. He hasn’t even tried to talk to her somehow successfully avoiding her on the ship. Hunk finds her perched in the rafters huddled in a corner. 

With one powerful wing beat he flies up to her landing delicately on the beam. “Lance.” She doesn’t stir “Hey, what's wrong Lance?”

She sniffles and he realizes she's been crying “I hurt him, I keep hurting him and I don't even realize it. I think he hates me.” 

“Have you guys talked?” She nods and wipes her nose “I told him to tell me when I’m being obtuse but he doesn’t like talking to me about things like that.” 

Hunk scoots closer and wraps his huge wing around her. And that’s when she breaks fat tears tracking down her face. They’re sitting in the rafters for hours, Hunk comforting her and Lance just finally being able to be vulnerable. 

“Lance, relationships are a two way street if he’s not talking to you then theres something wrong.” 

“You know that next month will mark our one year what if we don’t even make it?” 

“You guys just need to talk to each other for your sanity and his.” 

She smiles and gets a look in her eyes“Hunk, can I ask you for a favor?” 

~

As their one year looming and Lance sneaks off, which is an easy task now that she and Keith aren’t tied at the waist.  
Something had shifted in their relationship. It grows colder on Keith’s end. But Lance is still as affectionate as ever trying to mend what was broken. Keith brushes her off more often than not. He makes himself busy and avoids her during her second molt of the year.  
Despite that very blatant rejection of their relationship, she presses on. The only time she can really see him is during training. She watches him for a while as he swings his sword with more anger than he usually has. When Allura begins to wrap up the day Lance moves to the door barring the exit before Keith can sneak away. “Hey!” 

“Lance.” there’s no warmth in his voice. 

“Uh, Allura said we could stop by the mall and I was wondering if you wanted to go on a date since we haven’t been on one in a while.” 

He looks at her for a long time and she is very aware that they are the center of attention right now. “Yeah, sure.” 

Lance lets out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Great! I’ll meet you at the food court.” 

She doesn’t move and he clears his throat. Sheepishly she moves aside and he’s gone again. She sags exhausted now, not from training but this obstacle course of trying to fix their relationship. This has to work, and not just for their sake. 

~

When they go back to the space mall, Lance disappears for an hour much to the annoyance of Keith. As he sits in the food court for an hour waiting for her, his anger grows and he adds it to the list of things that bothers him.. She swoops in out of breath and blowing napkins everywhere. “I’m so sorry, I lost track of the time.” she hesitates for a millisecond “There’s a lot of air space around here it’s nice.” His jaw clenches and he takes a moment to compose himself. 

They walk through the Mall signing things for people who recognize them, and trying new space food. For the most part they have fun. There are new parts of the mall they’ve never seen before and live shows that have taken up a portion of the place.

“You’ve been acting really weird for the past few weeks. Keith, are we ok?” They’ve stopped at a terrace and he looks out to space. 

“I hope so, I miss you.” she teaches for his hand and doesn’t let go.

They go back to their lovey dovey selves for a while but it doesn’t last. She didn’t expect it to.  
He stops talking to her all together. No more late night talks, no more jokes, even in the training room he doesn’t even warn her when the training bot comes close enough to hit her. “You fucking asshole, why didn’t you warn me?” He scowls at her, “What, your Avian senses didn’t warn you?” “ 

“Is this what this whole thing is about? We’re not trying to leave you out of anything what the hell are you on?” 

Keith none of us can change the way we’re born or how we’re raised.” He just ignores her.  
Her wings shudder and sag fo a moment before she snaps them tightly to her back. “Is that it, are we done?” 

“I guess so.”

If Keith cared enough to turn around, he would have seen the devastation on her face or saw the subtle way her lips started to quiver before she leaves the room.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, thank you so much for reading. Lemme let you in on a little secret. This was written because I needed a prologue to another fic.
> 
>  
> 
> Tumblr
> 
> Ok, I've tried fixing this tumblr link so many times but just in case it doesn't work again. Its Wriiteitdown with 2 i's in Write :3


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